Melissa Doyle

Melissa Jane Doyle (born 10 February 1970) is an Australian television presenter, author and journalist.

Doyles started her career, when she gained a cadetship at WIN Television's Canberra bureau in 1990, later becoming their weather presenter.

Doyle then moved to Prime Television in 1993, where she was a news anchor and general reporter.

After her stint at Prime ended in 1995, Doyle joined the Seven Network (which was Prime's affiliation partner at the time) as a Canberra-based political reporter before moving to Sydney where she read the news on 11AM, reported the news and read the afternoon updates.

Doyle was one of the original hosts of the breakfast television program Sunrise before it was axed in 1999, before being resurrected in 2000, and which she rejoined in 2002.

In 1999 she was the fill in presenter of the last bulletin of 11AM due to the incumbent presenter Anne Fulwood having already relocated to Melbourne.

She also had a stint reading the Seven Late News.

In 2000, she took over as host of Sydney's Today Tonight following the departure of Stan Grant.

She stayed until March 2001 when she went on maternity leave.

She was previously co-host of the Seven Network's breakfast television program Sunrise from 2002 to 2013 alongside David Koch and host and senior correspondent of Sunday Night.

Doyle is currently host of Weekend Breakfast on Smooth FM and the Seven Network documentary series This is Your Life.

Doyle attended Pymble Ladies' College.

She studied communications at Charles Sturt University at the Bathurst campus and during her studies she was a broadcaster with on-campus community radio station 2MCE-FM.

In 2003, Doyle enjoyed a very public pregnancy with her second child, who was born in December of that year.

Doyle was nominated for the Silver Logie as Most Popular Television Presenter in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

She was the only female nominated in that category.

Doyle was involved in legal proceedings in which it was alleged she identified a minor who was divorcing his parents.

The divorce case was being heard in the Victorian Children's Court and because the boy was only 14 years old he couldn't be named.

But Sunrise, as well as a number of other news outlets, including the Sunday Herald Sun and Today Tonight, allegedly identified him and the journalists/presenters were charged with contempt of court.

The journalists and presenters/hosts were all acquitted but the Seven Network, its news director, Today Tonight's executive producer and the Sunday Herald Sun and its editor-in-chief were convicted.

While at the helm of Sunrise she was at the front line of many of Australia's biggest stories of the era including, but not limited to, Beaconsfield Mine collapse and the 2010–11 Queensland floods, and international stories such as the Royal Wedding.

Doyle supports the Greater Western Sydney Giants AFL team; in 2012, she was named as the GWS Giants' inaugural No. 1 Ticket Holder.

Doyle returned to Seven from maternity leave in a variety of news and presenting roles before being asked to front a revamped Sunrise program with Chris Reason, who was later replaced by David Koch.

Together, Doyle and Koch under the guidance of Executive producer Adam Boland, surpassed their incumbent opposition and market leaders, Today on the Nine Network.

They built the program from a virtually zero viewer base to be the leading breakfast television program in Australia and there it remained throughout Doyle's tenure on the program.

She was then dubbed the 'Queen of Australian Brekky TV'.

On 20 June 2013, Doyle announced that she would be stepping down as Sunrise co-host to take on a national role within the Seven Network.

She presented her final show on 9 August of the same year.

Her farewell program was the highest rating edition of the show that year.

It was revealed in August 2013 that Doyle would present a new national bulletin of Seven Afternoon News at 4pm on weekdays with former Today Tonight host Matt White, as well as a new national bulletin Seven News at 7 on Seven's digital channel 7two.

Doyle also hosted the first debate of the 2013 Federal Election between Labor leader and then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Liberal leader Tony Abbott, on 7two on 11 August.

She was also a part of the 2013 federal election broadcast with Chris Bath, Mark Riley and Matt White.

In December 2013, Doyle co-hosted Carols in the Domain with Matt White.

This bulletin was discontinued in May 2014.

Doyle began presenting Seven News at 7 on 12 August and Seven Afternoon News on 19 August.

In June 2015, it was announced that Doyle would replace Chris Bath on Sunday Night and Seven News Sydney due to Bath's resignation from the Seven Network.

Doyle signed off from Seven Afternoon News for the last time in late July.

In August 2016, it was announced that Doyle would move into a new expanding role as host and senior correspondent on Sunday Night. As a result of Melissa's new position Michael Usher replaced her on Seven News Sydney.

In October 2019, Sunday Night was cancelled and it was announced Doyle would remain with the Seven Network in a variety of news reading roles.

In March 2020, Doyle joined Michael Usher to host Seven News: The Latest throughout the COVID–19 crisis.